The Reunion Date
by TheNewMissNoOne
Summary: Artie needs a fake date for his family reunion or else his cousin Marcus would kick his butt. And who better to do it than Tina Cohen-Chang?


**Here's my next update! This story is quite different from the others that I've written, but I still hope you enjoy them! And please review! Thank you! :)**

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"Artie! I have great news!" Mrs. Abrams yelled to Artie in the living room, "We're having an Abrams family reunion this Saturday!"

Artie groaned. "Mom, you know I hate family reunions. They don't seem to understand my... situation..." he said, gesturing to the wheelchair he was sitting on.

"Yes they do. I think they handled it pretty well last year, actually,"

"No they didn't. No one would talk to me. They acted like paraplegia is contagious!"

"I'm sure they'll love you, sweetie. Now pack your stuff! We would be spending the night there!" she said enthusiastically and clapped her hands.

"Mom, it's only Wednesday. I can pack tomorrow, or the next day,"

"Oh, but Artie, I'm so excited! Aren't you?"

Artie groaned again. "No, I'm not," he mumbled not loud enough for his mother to hear.

That night, he logged on Facebook and his cousin Marcus started chatting with him almost immediately.

"Whatsup, Dead Legs?" he said in the chat box.

"Hello, Marcus." he replied.

"I told you to call me Mark!"

"Yeah, not gonna happen, Marcus."

Marcus was, to say the least, worst than all the bullies in McKinley High. They pour slushie on him, hide his wheelchair, and throw him in the dumpster. Marcus hits him where it hurts-his heart. He took Artie's paraplegia seriously. And Artie could only look away and pretend it hadn't affected him.

"Whatever. Excited for the reunion with the fam?"

"Not in the least." He replied truthfully.

"Well_ I _am!" Artie sighed in frustration, knowing that what was coming next would be him bragging about something. "I'm gonna bring Michelle and Ella!"

"Let me guess. They're your girlfriends and they're twins."

"SCORE! I gotta give you credit, Gurdy. You're smart."

"My name's Artie. That's A-R-T-I-E, ARTIE."

"Do I look like I care?" He can definitely imagine him rolling his eyes in front of the computer. "And don't be so high and mighty there. I'd like to see YOU get a girl! HAH! Not possible."

Okay, now that struck him. Hard. "Hey! I can be a ladies man when I want! I'm just focusing on going to a good college right now, unlike SOME people..."

"FYI, I got a C+ on English last week. Take that, Nerdy!"

"IT'S ARTIE!"

"Again, whatever. At least I got the brains AND the beauty!"

"Wow. Just when I thought you couldn't get any more egotistic, you do."

"Eh, it's a gift. I'd like to see YOUR girlfriend at the reunion. HAH! Sucker..."

"AND YOU WILL!"

"Wait, you HAVE a girlfriend?"

"Damn right I do! And I WILL bring her to the reunion!" Artie wasn't sure what he was typing now; he just wanted the conversation to be over already.

"Huh. Good luck, Wheels. Go ahead and bring your non-existent girlfriend here."

"I really have a girlfriend, MARCUS."

"It's MARK! And no need to lie about it, Larry. I'll take it easy on you if you just admit the truth."

"Again, it's ARTIE. And no, I am not lying. I will bring my super existent girlfriend to the reunion this Saturday and YOU will be proven wrong! GOOD BYE." He typed and quickly shut off the computer.

_What am I gonna do? I don't have a girlfriend! But I can't admit that to Marcus... Wait, maybe I could... Nah._

"So, Artie, what plans do we have this Saturday?" Tina asked him as they were walking/rolling down the school halls.

"Nothing. We have another stupid family reunion this whole weekend,"

Tina put on a confused face. "I don't see how it's stupid. I think family reunions are really great,"

"But..." Artie stopped rolling and faced her, "You know how you and my parents are the only ones who don't really care about my situation?"

Tina nodded, then an "Ohhhh..." came out of her mouth.

"Yeah," he said sheepishly, "And with Marcus..." he shivered.

"What's wrong with Marcus?" she inquired.

"He's only the meanest guy I know. He bullies me a lot and calls me names and stuff... and he thinks he's all superior just cause he brings different girls in every family reunion,"

"Sounds horrible,"

"Oh he is. And just imagine what he'd do to me this Saturday when he finds out I don't have a girlfriend,"

"Why would he think you have a girlfriend?"

"Well, I kinda... told him I did because of... I don't know... peer pressure? Gah, I hate puberty!"

"You told him you had a girlfriend? Oh, you are in sooo much troubleeee!" she mocked him, punching his arm playfully.

"Geez, you could at least be nice to me during my last few seconds of life. He's gonna murder me this weekend!"

"No he won't,"

"No, Tee, punching him in the testicles won't do any good," Artie informed.

"Oh darn!"

"Yes, he's that bad,"

"Well he still won't. Because I'm coming with you!"

"Tina, I'd rather you keep your fists away from his test—"

"Not to punch him, you noob!" she slapped his face at his remark, "I'm gonna be your girlfriend!"

"Wh-wh-what? But, Tee, we're just friends," as painful as it is, it was true.

"Duh, you knucklehead, we'll pretend!"

"Really? You'd actually pretend to be my girlfriend?"

"Yeah! I'd rather my best friend not be killed by his jerky cousin," she smiled at him.

"Well we better practice some couple stuff then,"

"That won't be a problem. Lots of people in this school think we're already dating anyway," she said sheepishly.

"Yeah..."

That Saturday, Tina knocked on the door to Artie's house. Mrs. Abrams opened it.

"Hello, Tina, great to see you,"

"Hey, Mrs. A," she greeted cheerfully, "Is Artie ready?"

"He'll be down here in a minute. Listen, I know you're only pretending to be dating, but I'll only agree because I bet all our house furniture that you'd be together by the end of the weekend," she winked at a very red-faced Tina.

"Oh, no, it's not like that. It's only because of his cousin,"

"Yeah, Marcus can be such a pain in the butt. But I know that Artie likes you. I mean, really. And I can't say I don't approve," she smiled sweetly as she got back to the kitchen to grab some more stuff to pack.

Artie rolled within sight. "Hey, Tee, I see you had a nice conversation with my mom,"

"Yeah, just talking about the weather," she smiled wide.

"Ready to go?" Mr. Abrams walked in and asked the three and within twenty minutes, they were all loaded into the van and on their way for a three-hour ride.

The van was big enough to fit eight people. Artie's chair was packed in the back row and he sat next to Tina in the middle row.

Throughout the ride, Artie still couldn't believe that Tina was his fake girlfriend. He likes her, he really does. He loved the way she moves gracefully in her giant boots and the way she sang her soul out during Glee, and the simple fact that she was not like any other girls he'd met. She wasn't a bitch like the Cheerios Brittany, Santana, and Quinn before she got pregnant. She wasn't annoyingly talkative like Rachel. And she wasn't obsessed with lots of solos like Mercedes and Kurt (yes, as of now, Kurt is counted as a girl). She was just simple. Just Tina. And he liked that underneath her gothic look and girly skirts was a girl full of happiness and sunshine and obsessed with Tekken just as much as he is.

They made lots of conversation in the car, but as soon as Mrs. Abrams turned on the radio, they started busting out the songs, laughing as they didn't really try to sound like they did during Glee, but more like crazy teenagers on a high.

"_GO AHEAD AS YOU WASTE YOUR DAYS WITH THINKING, WHEN YOU FALL EVERYONE STANDS_," Tina sang (more like shouted) out the open window as Artie air-drummed to the music. Laughs filled the car at their craziness.

When the song came to an end, they sighed and Tina said "Your turn to sing the next song, Artie,"

"No problem," he said smoothly, that is, until they heard the next song.

Tina started laughing. "Try to sing _that_!" The intro of 'Strawberry Avalanche' by Owl City sounded through the speakers.

"Hey! I do a pretty good Adam Young impression!"

Tina raised an eyebrow. "Try me,"

"_This is a wooorld of dreams, and reeeeverieee_," he tried to sound good. He really did. But Owl City was just too weird for him and he was trying to bite back bits of laughter.

"My ears are bleeding, please stop singing!" she joked and he punched her playfully on the arm.

The rest of the ride carried on like that until they found themselves in front of a big white house that will serve as the Abrams' home for the weekend.

When they got their luggage and Artie's chair out of the car, they all went inside to see lots of people in there already.

"Cynthia! Oh how I've missed you!" Mrs. Abrams greeted a red-haired lady holding a champagne glass as they immediately retreated to the kitchen to discuss in there.

"You kids enjoy yourselves. But don't try any alcohol," Mr. Abrams told the pair and walked off to greet a bearded man in the corner. They only nodded. They both hated alcohol anyway and being drunk in a family reunion was the last thing they wanted.

They settled themselves on the sofa, taking a bite of some pizza on the table. They were engrossed in talking about the movie 'Avatar' when they heard a cocky voice behind them.

"Well, well, well, Four Eyes, we meet again,"

"Nice to see you, too, Marcus," Artie replied to the tall, brown-haired guy wearing a football jacket with two identical women in his arms.

"I'd like you to meet Micah and Racquel," he said.

"I thought they were Michelle and Ella?" Artie asked.

One girl scowled. "My name's Mandy!"

The other girl scowled, too. "And I'm Ellie!"

Marcus shrugged. "Whatever. We all know you just want to get up on _this_ anyway,"

Artie cleared his throat. "Well, this is my girlfriend, Tina Cohen-Chang. Tina, this is Marcus,"

Tina stood up to shake his hand, but he only stared at her as if she had two heads. "_Asian_, huh? Knew a freak like you would also date other freaks..."

"Excuse me!" Tina put her hands on her hips, frowning mad. Her hands clenched into fists and Artie feared what was gonna happen next. So he quickly rolled to her and pulled her down on his lap.

"_Honey_, calm down!" he exaggerated a bit and, through clenched teeth, whispered furiously to her, "You do not want to get into a brawl with him."

Tina unclenched her fists, but continued glaring daggers at the tall guy in front of them, who just shrugged and walked away.

It was then that she realized their awkward situation and quickly got up to sit back down on the sofa, blushing madly.

"I haven't even said five words to the guy and I already hate him," she said to him, "At first I thought he was just another Puck,"

Artie nodded. "I'd take Puck over him any day,"

They were once again engrossed in another conversation when they suddenly heard a few sounds from the room. They looked up to find Marcus making out with the identical twins on the floor. And let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. The girls, who wore skimpy skirts and tight tank tops, attacked him with their lips everywhere, their blonde heads bobbing up and down with the way they moved. Marcus's hands were everywhere, too. Loud moans and groans were heard from their throats. But, of course, the adults were all in the dining room and had no chance of hearing them. The younger kids had run outside to play in the mini playground in the backyard, while the teenagers remained in the living room.

Artie made eye contact with his thirteen to fifteen-year-old cousins. They all wore the same expression he and Tina did.

"What's the matter, Nerdy?" Marcus got up to face him, "Don't get any action as much as I do?" He then shifted his gaze to Tina, "Hey, Asian, how much is Dead Legs giving you? Do you ride him on the chair, or do you have to drag his immobile ass to the bed, or do you prefer to do it on the floor?"

Tina looked like she wanted to gag.

Marcus then winked at her, "Y'know, if you decide to leave him, you could always tap _this_," he placed his hand on her thigh. She jerked back in fright, swatting his hand away.

"Don't you dare touch my girl!" Artie yelled and, before he knew what he was doing, he had dragged himself out of his chair and punched Marcus everywhere. Tina gasped.

"ARTIE!" Tina and all his other cousins in the room screamed.

Artie didn't care. Anger flared up in him, making him red in the face as he punched Marcus's stomach, chest, then his nose until he finally heard a satisfying 'Crack'.

"See if any girls would wanna tap you now!" Artie drew his fist back, but before he could punch again, his dad had pulled him away from Marcus and back to his chair. Tina ran over to him and hugged the life out of him.

"Artie, what the hell?" Mr. Abrams shouted.

Artie shot his head up and pointed a finger to Marcus. "He molested Tina! I couldn't just sit here and let him do that!" He looked like he wanted to punch him again, but Tina wrapped her arms more securely around him.

"Oww..." Marcus growled at the blood from his broken nose as his parents took him to the nearby clinic, his girlfriends tagging along with him.

"Arthur!" Mr. Abrams growled in anger, but before he could finish his sentence, his mother had dragged Mr. Abrams to the kitchen to talk.

The rest looked at Artie as if he had just balanced a ten-wheeler truck on his index finger, before turning back to their original positions.

Tina sat on the sofa and waited patiently for Artie to calm down, his chair parked next to the sofa.

"Deep breaths, Artie, deep breaths..." she chanted, rubbing his back comfortingly.

"I-I'm sorry, Tee. I didn't know what came over me; it's like a sudden impulse to protect you. Instead I became a monster and beat him up and I'm really—" he was cut off by Tina surprisingly hugging him and kissing him on the cheek. He blushed madly.

"Thanks, Artie. I really appreciate it," they smiled at each other and pulled away.

Artie, still blushing, shyly took her hand in his and played with her fingers to see if she would pull away before intertwining them. Tina smiled and sighed contentedly.

"I didn't know you had such a mad left hook, Artie," she joked after a few minutes of comforting silence.

"I knew those freaky guitar solos would come in handy someday," he joked back and they laughed.

Tina laid her head on his shoulder and her smile went wider.

Artie stopped laughing abruptly and looked at the calm angel resting on his shoulder. She had begun to close her eyes and he decided to just let her relax for a while. He looked forward to meet the hard stare of his father and he gulped.

Much to his surprise, though, his father smiled. When Artie shot him a confused look, Mr. Abrams brushed his shoulder, indicating to what was on _Artie's_ shoulder, laughed and walked away. Artie shook his head at the silliness of his father before letting the silence take over and give him time to think.

During dinner, Artie was kind of glad that all the attention that was usually on Artie's paraplegia had turned to Marcus's broken nose. It was now in a band-aid and was slightly crooked. He also had to take some antibiotics to help with the healing. Needless to say, he never really spoke to Artie again.

When they were all dressed to go to bed, they ran over to find the rooms where they wanted to stay in (they rented a house with many rooms for the night). Tina and Artie chose ones that were next to each other's and headed in to get some rest.

Tina woke up to the frightening sound of thunder and cursed when she found that it was 2:43 in the morning. She had this constant fear of thunderstorms. The rain pelted on the roof and a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder was what she saw and heard. She yelped and covered her face with her blanket.

For the next fifteen minutes, she had unsuccessfully tried to go back to sleep but found that she couldn't.

_Oh well. Drastic times call for drastic measures._

She got up and made her way to the bedroom next to hers. She barged in without knocking and crept over to the rug on the floor beside Artie's bed and laid down there. It was uncomfortable, but she knew she wouldn't be scared when Artie was with her.

Artie groaned. Being the light sleeper that he was, he woke up to some footsteps. He grabbed his glasses from the bedside table and saw Tina on the rug on the floor, desperately trying to sleep.

"Tee?" he said, his voice deep with sleep. Tina's eyes opened with a jolt and she blushed.

"Can I stay here?"

The sound of thunder filled the room and she yelped again. Artie, nodded. "Of course. But what kind of an idiot would I be if I let you sleep on the floor?" he scooted to the side of his bed and patted the space next to him.

Tina looked unsure, but when another crack of thunder came, she climbed in without much hesitation. She shivered and Artie put the blanket on her. She curled up on his chest, her hands fisting his shirt, and her breath hot on his neck.

"Artie?"

"Hmm?" he mumbled, already half asleep.

"Did I mention that I love you?" she exhaled heavily as she waited for his answer.

"You do?" he said, now fully awake. "Well, I love you, too."

She giggled, leaned up, and pressed her lips to his. He kissed back as the kiss grew deeper, her hands fisting in his hair and his hands resting on her hips. She had rolled over so she was on top of him, straddling his waist and he moved down to plant kisses on her neck. The kiss went on like that before they had to pull away for oxygen.

They went back to their sleeping positions and Tina giggled again.

"What're you giggling about?" he asked.

"You're not wearing pants."

His face heated up as her giggles grew louder and louder and soon put them to sleep.

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Thank you for reading! PLEASE REVIEW! Love you all! ;)


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